Embedded-Software R&D Transfer Recovery Leader

The mandate

The first embedded-software transfer wave moved coding and test activity into India, but Japanese teams retained interface, safety and release decisions while suppliers controlled crucial diagnostic knowledge. A vehicle milestone slipped when no owner could approve a cross-domain change. The global transfer leader departed after source and India teams disputed whether design authority had ever been included.

The interim must start in Tokyo within three weeks and lead for fifteen months, with a possible three-month extension only if the final vehicle gate moves. A permanent global software transfer search begins after India owns one control domain through release, expected in month eight. The successor will overlap for seven weeks and chair the closing design and safety reviews.

Handover requires three embedded domains to have accountable India product and technical owners, safety and interface decisions to operate within clear delegations, supplier knowledge and code rights to be usable, source shadow work to exit, two release exercises to pass without hidden approvals, and the permanent leader to accept programme, talent, supplier and residual-risk registers.

The interim may stop transfer, reject domain acceptance, set work-package boundaries, redirect existing engineers, invoke supplier knowledge obligations and approve up to JPY 3.5 billion within the programme. Permanent hiring, vehicle architecture, supplier termination, safety-policy change and decisions above JPY 700 million require board approval. The seat cannot sign safety certification or vehicle release.

Hardware sourcing, manufacturing transfer, consumer software and vehicle programmes outside the three domains are explicitly out of scope. The mandate covers embedded product ownership, design and interface authority, verification, supplier boundaries, functional-safety operating interfaces, India leadership and permanent transfer governance.

Why this seat is open

The missed milestone exposed a transfer measured by labour location rather than control over a releasable vehicle domain. Leadership departure left source experts protecting safety and India leaders unable to demonstrate scope. Temporary authority is required to redraw work packages, exercise decisions and hand permanent leadership an operating transfer rather than another knowledge plan.

What you will own

• Reconstruct code, model, interface, test, safety, release, supplier and diagnostic ownership across three embedded domains.
• Define complete work packages with inputs, outputs, decision rights, evidence and vehicle-programme accountability.
• Transfer interface and design choices through India-led reviews while preserving independent safety assurance.
• Resolve supplier code access, diagnostic knowledge, toolchain, licensing, escalation and retained engineering boundaries.
• Build India product, architecture, verification and programme leaders around domain outcomes and successor depth.
• Command simulated defects, cross-domain changes and release gates that expose hidden source approvals.
• Transfer the domain ledger, delegations, supplier actions, talent map and programme risk through successor-led governance.

Candidate qualifications

• Led cross-border transfer of automotive embedded-software design authority into an India engineering centre during active vehicle milestones.
• Owned complete controls or platform domains spanning interface contracts, calibration, verification, supplier code, diagnostics and homologation evidence.
• Preserved functional-safety independence while relocating routine architecture, defect and product decisions to accountable receiving leaders.
• Resolved supplier intellectual-property, toolchain-access and key-person constraints that had prevented genuine captive subsystem ownership.
• Stopped a transfer that moved coding capacity without architecture rationale, field diagnostics or accountable vehicle-release authority.
• Handed a multi-domain R&D transition to permanent leadership after observing India-led change control, defect triage and release decisions.

Non-negotiables

• Can begin in Tokyo within three weeks and travel monthly between Japanese and Indian engineering sites.
• Will accept exclusive executive responsibility and continuous escalation for affected vehicle milestones.
• Brings automotive embedded design-authority transfer; offshore software delivery alone is insufficient.
• Must disclose relationships with manufacturers, tier suppliers, tool vendors and engineering-service firms.

1. 49 words maximum. State your earliest Tokyo start and the largest embedded domain transfer you personally commanded.
2. 49 words maximum. Describe a supplier dependency that prevented an India team from owning a vehicle-software decision.
3. 49 words maximum. Which release scenario best exposes design authority that never genuinely transferred?